The invention concerns computing systems. More particularly, the invention concerns systems and methods for providing a Business-to-Business (“B2B”) social network.
Modern commerce is a complex undertaking, especially for large corporations with many assets in diverse geographic locations. Modern commercial entities often distribute administrative workload (e.g., asset management) amongst many employees in many locations. Modern commercial entities also form business relationships with many other commercial entities, such as partners, buyers, sellers, and distributors. For example, a corporate retail entity may operate hundreds of retail stores and purchase goods from hundreds of different suppliers. A retail entity may receive shipments from a variety of shipping and distribution entities at various locations, such as warehouses and retail stores. A retail entity may perform distribution of the goods to the various retail stores. For certain goods or for certain suppliers, a retail entity may allow the supplier to manage inventory in the retail entity's retail stores (i.e., “vendor-managed inventory”).
Many different electronic inventory management systems are available from various hardware and software vendors for assisting commercial entities in the management of their inventory. Each of the electronic inventory management systems is generally not compatible with other electronic inventory management systems. In this regard, it should be understood that there is no universally adopted data format for storing or communicating inventory data between different electronic inventory management systems.